RFS Bakhchisaray incident

The RFS Bakhchisaray Incident took place on 2-3 March 2016 when Russian submarine RFS Bakhchisaray beached on Palau and was captured by the US Navy SEALs. 52 hands were captured in the incident, and Captain Alexei Zinikov was wounded. The United States released the crew aboard KRI Suharto, an Indonesian vessel that passed by on a trade mission.

Background
RFS Bakchisaray was manufactured by the Ural Drive Yards in central Russia in 2014, an Oscar-II class submarine. It was built with the intention of joining up with the Black Sea Fleet in order to subdue the threat of the Ukrainian Navy. However, the Russian invasion of Crimea ended on 24 March 2014 and the vessel was no longer needed. Ported in Vladivostok, it was commodeered by the Russian Navy in 2016 when President Boris Vorshevsky prepared to defend Russia against all immediate threats, chiefly the US Navy.

The submarine was dispatched to scout the Pacific Ocean on a reconaissance mission according to the CIA, whose base at New Taipei picked up surveillance imagery of the vessel. The ship entered US territorial waters on the island of Palau at 2:10 PM on 2 March 2016, with Captain Alexei Zinikov being accused of plotting to spy on the US defenses. US Navy headquarters radio officer James Simpson sent a warning to the submarine at 2:15 PM, saying that foreign vessels were not allowed in the US waters outside of the island. However, Zinikov did not speak English and did not understand the orders, and continued to move towards the island. Simpson sent another message but it was unreleased by US authorities, who felt that Captain Zinikov was deliberately ignoring it. US frogmen were dispatched to haul in the vessel at 2:46 PM, with two squads of armed troops forming on the beach. The frogmen fired ziplines at the front of the submarine from underwater, and with the assistance of a tugboat, they were able to pull the submarine within 50 feet of the island by 3:16 PM. Captain Zinikov was unaware of the operation until seaman Vasiliy Akarov used the telescope to find out that they were being hauled in. The Russian ship was brought in to the beach, and despite the efforts of engineers to pull the submarine back into the ocean, it was firmly beached on the sand at 4:00 PM.

A US frogman, Private Jeffery Sanders, shot the lock to the submarine hatch and threw a flashbang inside after the captain refused to come out. With the crew stunned, more frogmen rushed into the submarine and managed to arrest most of the crew. One Russian sailor, Dimitri Pedernovo, was nearly able to escape out of the submarine via the frozen propellers, but was caught by a US Navy soldier. The crew were all handcuffed and forced to exit the vehicle, and Colonel Andrew Bates brought up a translator through which he spoke to the crew. He demanded that they show him around the vessel in search of possible surveillance equipment or military weaponry, and he found 15 hidden cameras, 50 tape recorders, 10 flip-cameras, and when he searched for weapons, he found an armory with small arms (mainly Vectors or pistols). All of the Russian equipment was confiscated, and the Russian sailors were stripped of their hardware. Clad only in basic uniforms, the Russian soldiers were hoarded into the cafeteria of the US military base, which became an impromptu prison.

While the Russian sailors were detained, Colonel Bates sent radio transmissions to nearby ships in search for transport for the Russians. Three times, ships refused, but Indonesian military vessel KRI Suharto accepted the mission. The crew was released the next morning at 6:00 AM and transferred, and the submarine was kept for two months for investigation before it was scrapped. The surveillance equipment and military hardware was kept by the USA, but it was considered to be piracy in a Russian complaint to the United Nations, so it was returned to the Russian military base at Vladivostok.

The end result of the incident was a breakdown in Russo-American relations. The Russians boycotted meetings with the USA for weeks, and they made sure to boost their navy's weaponry. The USA boosted coastal defenses and their army's strength.